


i love you 'til it hurts

by askmeaboutmyoctopustheory



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Clint Barton & Natasha Romanov Friendship, Deaf Clint Barton, Emotional Constipation, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining, Post-Canon, Road Trips, Sharing a Bed, Spooning
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-02
Updated: 2021-01-18
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:34:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26768842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory/pseuds/askmeaboutmyoctopustheory
Summary: Somewhere into Pennsylvania, Clint jolted awake. His hand instinctively went to the knife strapped to his calf until he looked over and saw Bucky slumped at the wheel with his metal arm glittering lazily out the window. Right. They were going to check on Nat. And they decided to drive.----Post-freefall emotional constipation and pining fic
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton
Comments: 21
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hellurrr all~! This takes place post-freefall canon and i don't *think* you need to know the intricacies of the plot, it might make more sense if you know the gist of hawkeye:freefall. This is post-BW 1 because this is 2020 and comic releases are weirdly timed so I had time to think between 1 and 2.
> 
> marked E for the future *eyeblur*

Bucky pulled up to the familiar Bed-Stuy apartment on his motorcycle just as the first breaks of light were peeking over the horizon. A quick glance at his phone told him that he was early, and his eye caught movement as a coffee-shop employee set a sign out on the sidewalk. Coffee was probably a good idea. 

Now, more on time and equipped with one of the few things that Clint was actually motivated by, Bucky made his way down to the basement apartment. Not bothering to knock, he sat on Clint’s sofa until the man himself emerged shirtless and sleep-ruffled and zeroed his eyes in on the coffee in Bucky’s hand. 

“God, I love you.” Clint mumbled as he took the larger cup and drained about half of it in one drag.

Bucky flickered his eyes to Clint’s ears, noticing that he wasn’t wearing his hearing aids yet. “I love you too.” he whispered.

Clint stumbled back into his bedroom, looking much more awake and ready when he came back out to the living room. He dropped a duffel bag and his bow case onto the floor by Bucky.

“You ready?” He asked, appraising Bucky’s traveling attire and his ever-present backpack.

“Yep.” Bucky said shortly. “You’re driving.”   
  
“Ugh not first shift. I’m not awake yet, we’ll crash before we’re out of Manhattan.” 

Bucky only scowled for a second. “Fine.” 

Clint was asleep slumped against the passenger window before they drove over the Brooklyn bridge. Bucky gave a glance to Clint’s long legs assembled awkwardly in the small space and wondered why they didn’t take a bigger car. An hour into Clint’s nap, Bucky turned his spotify on to listen to Taylor Swift. 

Somewhere into Pennsylvania, Clint jolted awake. His hand instinctively went to the knife strapped to his calf until he looked over and saw Bucky slumped at the wheel with his metal arm glittering lazily out the window. Right. They were going to check on Nat. And they decided to drive.

Which made sense, with one of them having appendages that weren’t TSA friendly and both of them being twitchy on commercial airlines. But Clint’s knees had woken up with the rest of him and were painfully aware of how small the station wagon was. 

“D’you need to stop for gas or anything soon?” Clint asked, probably too loudly because he hadn’t turned his aids back on after his nap. 

Bucky said something but when Clint didn’t react he awkwardly shifted to steer with his left hand and fingerspelled H-Y-B-R-I-D. 

“Damn.” Clint muttered, stretching out as much as he could extend his legs up onto the dashboard. He felt his knee pop and Bucky gave him a startled look. “Yeah, I'm old and I crack like a glowstick, we can’t all age slowly.”

Bucky hovered his hand awkwardly like he wasn’t sure what to try and say so Clint took pity on him and flicked his hearing aids back on. 

“Do you need to stop?” Bucky said with surprising concern.

“I’ll eventually need to eat, and wouldn’t say no to more coffee.” 

Bucky flickered his eyes over at him again. “We can stop. Natalia has managed on her own for this long, we don’t need to rush.”

“Are we sure she can’t just continue managing on her own.” Clint grumbled.

“This was your idea, Barton.”

Clint just huffed at that. He rearranged his limbs into a new position to relieve some of the cramping in his hips and put his feet against the ceiling. He thumbed Bucky’s phone open, hoping he hadn’t changed the passcode. A-L-P-I-N-E alphanumerically...yes. 

“Don’t tell the Russians that their prize assassin listens to Taylor Swift.”   
  
“Nadia told me to listen to it.” Bucky said defensively. 

“That  _ two _ of their prize assassins listen to Taylor Swift.”

Bucky saw a sign for a Chainsaw Sculpture Park and veered across several lanes of traffic to the exit. “This looks interesting.”

“It’s 9 in the morning.”

They wordlessly drove through the park that actually did not contain chainsaws, but roughly hewn wooden statues, presumably cut with chainsaws. Clint probably could have put that together if he had had more coffee. 

“There’s a little like main street area up here.” Bucky said sourly. “They probably have a diner or somethin.” 

“Awe buckaroo, you  _ do _ care!” Clint heckled.

“I don’t wanna listen to you complain for the next 9 hours.”

“Please tell me we’re going to stop before 9 hours from now.”

Bucky was just silent. He had missed this back and forth banter with Clint and messing with each other. He pulled into a parking space on the side of the small main street and gestured to the black and white awning down a ways.

“We’ll stop before then but we can get snacks and such at the grocery store while we’re here.”   
  
“Christ I forgot how surly you could be.” Clint muttered as he shuffled down the road towards the diner. 

Bucky just watched him from a few paces behind. Truthfully he wasn’t very surly these days, just around Clint. He was suppressing his feelings so hard that it made him revert back to his grumpy self. Bobbi told him to man up and just tell Clint how he felt. Nadia and Ying teased him for how flustered he got whenever they brought Clint up. Bucky knew they were right, but he wasn’t good at feelings, so he just tamped them down.

“They’ve got hashbrowns! Oooh and omelettes.” Clint interrupted his brooding as he slid into the booth at the table. 

“You’re not great at keepin’ a low profile are ya, Sport.” Bucky said lightly.

Clint’s eyebrow twitched minutely at the nickname. “You still spending time with the G.I.R.L.s? And Bobbi and Jan?”   
  


“Yeah.”

“‘S good.” Clint nodded. 

The waitress came and took their orders, leaving behind a pot of coffee at Clint’s request. A noticeable silence hung over the table. Bucky’s eyes scanned the room every other second, assessing threats and trying to keep his gaze from landing on Clint.

“You ok Buck?” Clint asked finally. “You seem…”

“I’m ok.” Bucky said shortly. It did nothing to lessen the tension growing over the table. “Why didn’t you ask for help?”

“Pardon?” 

“With the Hood.” Bucky swallowed. “Why didn’t you-”

“Bucky-”   
  
“You aren’t Castle, you don’t work alone, Clint. You should have let me help!” Bucky gritted out, cracking the plastic top of the dining table with his metal hand. 

“It’s over now Bucky.” Clint said finally. “Yeah, I should have asked-” Clint choked over his words.

“You can’t even admit it.” Bucky seethed.

“I didn’t want to put anyone else in the crosshairs!” Clint shot back finally. “I needed to deal with it on my own.”

“On your own except for an innocent kid?” 

That struck a nerve with Clint, who got up and went to sit at the diner counter. He got the attention of the waitress whose eyes flickered to the table where Bucky sat and back to him. Bucky ate his meal in brooding silence and when he went to pull his wallet out the waitress waved him off.

“Your….friend took care of it.”   
  
Bucky looked up to see that Clint had already walked outside and was waiting with a travel cup of coffee. When he walked outside Clint had his hand out expectantly.

“I’ll drive.”   
  
“Clint-” Bucky started but Clint was already walking towards the car. 

Bucky got into the passenger seat as Clint was adjusting the mirrors and seat and tried to read his face, but Clint wasn’t giving anything away. He was clearly still stung by Bucky bringing up Bryce. Grief and annoyance marred his handsome face.

“You can nap or whatever.” Clint said before plugging in his phone and turning his music up. 

Bucky just sighed and turned towards the window, curling himself onto the seat and preparing for the cold of silence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> gonna be more piney than a forest folks

Bucky jerked awake when the car slowed down an exit ramp. “Where are we?”   
  


Clint just looked at him out of the side of his eye. “No clue, middle America. Think it’s like noon.”

Bucky took in their surroundings and realized they were on a highway-exit conglomerate of fast food and gas stations that could be anywhere in the US. He tried to click his phone on. It was dead.

“I need more coffee and my knee is cramping.” Clint said. 

“I’m gonna try and figure out where the hell we are.” 

“Why does it matter? We’re gonna be leaving again in a few minutes.”   
  
“You're a shit spy, Barton.”

“I’m not a spy.” Clint shot back as he walked to the mini-mart associated with the gas station. 

Bucky let himself out of the car and felt his human joints pop and his metal arm whir to adjust itself. He nodded at a man in a pickup truck with a cigarette. Ohio license plates. Cleveland Browns hat. Bucky could see a car with a red O sticker on the bumper. 

“I think we’re in Ohio.” Bucky said as he heard Clint’s shuffling gait approaching the car. 

“That explains the corn.” Clint leaned on the roof of the car. “Want to go to the cheesebarn?”

“The what?”

“Dunno, there’s a place around here called Grandpa’s Cheesebarn.” Clint put sunglasses that he must have bought in the gas station on. “I could eat at some point soon.”

“Alright.” Bucky agreed, sliding back into the car. 

Clint pulled back onto the highway and merged onto a smaller interstate to direct them further north. Bucky watched him carefully, now that his face was hidden behind sunglasses it was harder to read Clint’s expressions. 

“Quit your brooding. It’s my thing.” He said finally.

Clint barked out a laugh. “At least you know it.”

“I’m sorry, I went too far at breakfast.”   
  
“It’s ok.” Clint said with a twitch of his jaw. 

Bucky studied the part of Clint’s face that he could see. There was a new scar above his lip. “I still did it.”

“Just… let it go, Buck. It’s gonna be a long three days if we’re both trying to out-brood each other.”

“Can I plug my phone in?” 

“Yeah of course” Clint looked over at him with an odd look.

Bucky felt his face heat up with Clint’s eyes on him but busied himself watching the Northern Ohio treeline. 

“How far do you wanna get today?” He asked finally.

“At least through Indiana.”

“D’you know that’s where I’m from.” Bucky said offhandedly.

“I think I’ve heard that.” 

They exchanged random quips and snarks until Clint pulled off on an exit that had Grandpa's Cheesebarn as advertised. 

“The midwest is weird, man.” Clint remarked as he took his sunglasses off to squint at the barn facade. “Challenge you to find the weirdest cheese.”   
  


Bucky found himself overwhelmed with the cheese possibilities. Curds, wheels, dips, spreads. The barn also had pickles, trail mix, cured meats, and general midwestern tchotchkes. 

“Look Buck, it’s you.” Clint picked up a short, chunky cactus in a decorative jar that said ‘Prickly’ on it.

Clint’s laughter was worth the ribbing and made Bucky’s gut twist as he examined the sodas that were supposedly recreations of those found in the early 1900s.

“Y’know back in my day, these cost .25 cents a bottle.” Bucky put on his best grumpy voice as he gestured to the cooler.

Clint laughed again and Bucky felt reckless. He felt dangerously close to risking too much considering they were due to be stuck in a car together for the next three days. 

“You ready to check out?” Clint gestured to his basket full of cheese bricks and some jars of preserved goods. “There’s a fudge shop across the parking lot too.”

“Maple bacon cheddar cheese? Cajun cheese curds? Where do you find this stuff?”   
  
“You clearly weren’t lookin hard enough.” 

Bucky frowned down at his fairly normal selection of cheese and pickles. 

“Give it here, go get some fudge and meet me at the car?” Clint shook his basket at Bucky to drop his own selections into it. “I didn’t mention the stakes, but since you lost the weird cheese competition, you gotta drive next.”   
  
“I was going to anyway, weirdo.”   
  
“Yeah but now I feel better about it.” Clint shot back with a wink.

Bucky felt himself flush again and he hurried out the door towards the fudge shop. He had to stop and collect his emotions or else he was in for a rough few days.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THEY FINALLY SHARE A BED

Bucky poked his head out from where he was playing Cut the Rope on his phone, entirely ensconced in his massive hoodie and blanket. Clint was pulling off the freeway at what looked like a roadside hotel conglomerate. 

“Welcome back.” Clint said, still chewing on a toothpick from the restaurant where they had eaten dinner. “Figured we’d stop for the night.”   
  
They had pulled over for several more roadside attractions during the drive and for a few snack breaks.

  
“Where we at?”   
  
“Just into Illinois. I called ahead for a room.”

  
  


Bucky just grunted in approval. He looked out the window and saw so many more stars than he could ever see in New York. He searched for constellations until Clint had pulled into the parking lot. 

“Wanna unpack our bags and I’ll get the keys?”

Bucky just nodded, stretching his legs out of the car before getting out. He slung his backpack over his shoulder and popped the trunk open. Looking around, he could see the lights of a McDonald’s and a Shell station down the road. The heat of the day had settled into the pavement but the air around him was cooling down. There were cicadas in the trees by the hotel. 

“Buck! C’mon, got the keys.” Clint called from the sliding door of the hotel lobby.

Bucky picked up Clint’s duffel bag and his bow case as well. Neither of them slept well without their weapons nearby. 

“Oh there’s-” Bucky trailed off when he walked into the room.

“Yeah, we got a single King. I’m not _ made _ of money, Barnes.” Clint muttered. He rolled his eyes when Bucky turned towards him with the worried eyebrows that he learned from Steve. “I’m fine. I just used my rainy day fund getting rid of The Hood. Don’t give me your sad racoon eyes.”   
  
Bucky just looked back at the bed again. The room was small but he could sleep on the floor if he had to. Maybe he could feign exhaustion and fall asleep in the chair.

“I’m gonna shower, you can case the joint. Take the side of the bed you feel better about. Don’t be weird about it, you barely take up any space on a bed that big anyway.”

Clint turned the shower on and let the white noise of the water fill the room before taking his hearing aids out. The mirror steamed up as the warmth of the water permeated the small area. His body ached to lay down from being cramped into the car all day but he needed a moment to collect himself. 

  
Clint had forgotten just how  _ there _ Bucky always was. His presence over an extended period of time had made the feelings Clint thought he had pushed far, far down resurface. 

He and Bucky had always understood each other. They had a lot of common points. They were close, but held each other at a distance. But a close distance. Their frequent competitions on the practice range were an understood form of therapy for each other. And Clint wasn’t blind, he could appreciate Bucky’s thighs in his tac pants and how broadly he was built all over. 

Clint scrubbed his hair with the shitty hotel shampoo, secretly annoyed that it would probably make his hair worse. The warm water loosened up the knots that had formed from using the car window as a pillow and he felt even sleepier when he finally emerged. He had only put one of his hearing aids back in as he stumbled towards the bed.

“You can brush your teeth if you need to.” He mumbled to Bucky.

Clint blinked a few times when he saw that Bucky was wearing normal pajama pants with a pointlessly cropped hoodie.

“What are you wearing?”

Bucky’s ears pinking up a bit was noticeable with his hair pulled into a topknot. “My arm can be cold so I cover it if I’m sleeping w- Sharing a bed with someone.”

He scuttled into the bathroom as his blush crept down his neck, leaving Clint to just squint confusedly into the empty room. He left the bedside light on so that he could read Bucky’s lips but placed his aids on the bedside table.

“I don’t have my ears in so you’ll have to face me if you have to say something.” Clint said probably too loudly when Bucky re-emerged from the bathroom.

“It’s fine…..watch tv...a while… Good night…” Bucky said, still mumbling a bit but Clint could get the point.

He flopped over and punched at his pillow a few times to fluff it up before turning off the bedside light. “Gnight Barnes.”

He felt the timbre of Bucky’s voice on the mattress springs in response, but let sleep take hold of him. 

\-------

The first things Bucky was aware of the next morning were that it was much later than he had anticipated leaving the hotel, and that there was a well-muscled arm thrown over his bare midsection. Clint must’ve rolled over in his sleep. Bucky tried to subtly scootch away but his sleep-addled brain was thinking about how his feet only reached to Clint’s mid-calf. His movement must have awoken the other man because he felt a warm puff of air on his neck and Clint’s nose burying itself in his hair.

“Yr hair smells nice.” Clint’s raspy morning voice  _ did  _ things to Bucky in close quarters. “You  _ do _ shampoo your hair huh?”

Clint’s hold on his waist pulled him closer and relaxed, as if back asleep. Bucky could feel every rivet of Clint’s chest pressed close against his back and the boxer-briefs Clint wore to bed did nothing to conceal that he was….proportional. Bucky swore internally and closed his eyes while trying to think about baseball or Steve’s disappointed frown. 

“S’op thinkin Barnes and go back t’ sleep.” Clint’s sleepy voice came through again. 

Bucky looked at the clock by the TV. Even though they were already behind schedule, he figured being a little more behind couldn’t hurt. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> HI HELLO SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER I HAVE NO EXCUSE OTHER THAN THE WORLD IS MELTING AROUND ME
> 
> also sorry(not sorry?) that i reference unstoppable wasp quite a bit, i just really wish we had gotten more Ying and Nadia and Bucky content

Bucky woke up a second time alone in the room. Clint’s bags were still on the table but the archer himself was nowhere to be found. As if on cue, the mechanical lock of the hotel door clicked open. Clint’s eyes were still sleepy but he was holding two coffee cups in his hands and had pastry bags tucked under his pinkies.

“Mornin sunshine.” Clint’s face broke into a wide grin. “Thought I’d get us a kick-start since it’s a little later than we anticipated gettin’ out of here. There’s an Amish bakery if you drive into town.”

Bucky wordlessly accepted the cup of coffee and willed himself not to make things weird. If Clint was going to ignore whatever happened between them this morning, so could he. Maybe Clint had still been asleep. Maybe Clint was just a cuddly guy, most spy-assassin types are a bit touch-starved. Oblivious to Bucky’s internal hemming and hawing, Clint had been tidying the room and collecting all their belongings. Clint had gotten up before Bucky, leaving without waking him up, and gotten them breakfast. It even looked like he had started to organize their things for easy departure. Bucky’s brain was still sleep-heavy and not quite able to connect this Clint with pansexual disaster Clint.

“You good to go Bucky Bear?”

Bucky just sipped his coffee while searching in his bag for pants. He could feel Clint’s amused glance on him as he shoved his feet into his combat boots and drank the rest of his coffee in one gulp.

“I guess so. You’re driving first.”   
  
“Wow, I’m more awake than you this morning.” Clint commented. “Bad dreams?” 

He shot Bucky a wink as he slid into the drivers side of the car. There were a few moments of silence as Clint fiddled getting his phone connected to the radio to play his music. Bucky absently picked up Clint’s coffee and sipped on it. 

“I slept well.” Bucky said finally, looking out the window so that Barton couldn't see his blush. “And it’s barely morning anymore.”

“Didn’t realize we were suddenly in a rush.” Clint muttered. 

Bucky looked back over at Clint, who had his hand braced on the headrest of Bucky’s seat and his biceps flexed as he was looking behind him to back the car out. His profile was sharp and focused and Bucky had to look out the window again to stop his mind from going too far. 

When they were out on the turnpike, Bucky slid his chair back and propped his feet up on the dashboard.    
  
“We’ve gotta start drifting south eventually, but we got a whole lotta corn ahead of us.” 

“I grabbed a little map of stuff that we can go to. Since we’re apparently on no schedule.” Bucky commented, pulling a leaflet out of his jacket. 

“Find somethin’ that looks interesting. We can detour. Or reroute. Whatever.” 

Bucky hummed and just went back to playing candy crush and they traveled in relative silence save for the level up noises and Clint’s music. Bucky would glance up every now and then, only to see rows and rows of corn or soybeans or sunflowers. 

“Haven’t been to the midwest in…. A while.” Bucky remarked.

“Aren’t you from Indiana? Like way long ago?”   
  


“How do you know that?”   
  
“Do you forget that you’re a major historical figure?”   
  
Bucky just humphed at that. “Aren’t you from the bread basket too?”   
  
“”Yeah. Iowa.”   
  
“The Hawkeye state.” Bucky said with amusement.

“Yep. Named after me.”   
  
“It is not. It was called that when I was a kid.” Bucky felt his face grinning widely anyway. 

“Can’t a man dream, Buck?”

Clint glanced sideways at the passenger seat over his sunglasses, letting Bucky see his boyish blue eyes and grin. There was another extended pause of silence.

“Did you find anything interesting to go look at? I love weird roadside attractions.”   
  
“You were a weird roadside attraction.”   
  
“Not arguing that. What’ve you got for me to detour to?”

“The Curiosity Museum. It’s a little down South but we have to start heading down anyway.”

“Alright just give me the directions, you can type it into my gps. Do you want to stop for lunch?”

“We can just get fast food if you want. I think there’s a Taco Bell at the next exit.” Bucky replied, looking down at the map on Clint’s phone. 

They ate their burritos in the parking lot, watching the people at the truck station across the street. 

“D’you think she’s ok?” Bucky asked, not making eye contact.

“Nat?”

“Yeah.”   
  
“You should know more than most, she’s tough. It takes a lot to make her not ok.” Clint jostled Bucky across the console a bit. “She was trained well.”

Bucky felt his mouth quirk into a grin despite the low-lying worry in his gut. “I know. It’s just-”   
  
“I know, Buck. That’s why we’re goin to double check on her.” Clint rolled his window down and flung his crumpled up bag into a trash can outside. “You ready to roll out?” 

“Lean back, Barton.” Bucky gestured with his hand until he too had a clear shot to the garbage can. His arm whirred and a crumpled paper bag shot out of the window and into the trash can. 

“Show off.”

Bucky scoffed and leaned back in his seat as Clint pulled out of the parking lot. His eyes flickered around the truck stop and gas station as they left and he reached over to punch Clint lightly on the arm.

“Ow. What was that for?”   
  
“Slug Bug” 

Clint burst into laughter. “Oh man. The Winter Soldier follows rules of slug bug. God, I love it.”   
  
“Ms. Marvel apparently taught it to Nadia who taught it to me.”   
  


Clint just shook his head in disbelief. “When did this become my life.”   
  
“Tell me about it.” Bucky muttered. 

“You spend a lot of time with the girls at the lab?”

“Not necessarily at the lab, only because that’s where Nadia and Ying live. I think the other girls are scared of me.”   
  
“Or have a crush on you.”

Bucky felt a flush creep up his neck. “I don’t think so.” All of the GIRL lab members knew of his hopeless crush on Clint. 

“I’m glad.” Clint said after a moment. “That Ying and Nadia have you, not a lot of people can really have relatable life experience. You’re a good one, Buck.”

Bucky just looked down at his hands and felt uncomfortable about Clint complimenting him. 

“You’re gonna take the next exit for the state route.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> hi hello as usual sorry this took forever and i love u

They made good time on the backroads to the museum. Which turned out to be a museum of historical torture devices. Clint didn’t ask Bucky what prompted him to want to come here. They both had a morbid fascination that was probably the result of a few crossed wires in their brains. 

Bucky slid into the driver's seat and they sped into Missouri. Clint had picked up a book of crossword puzzles at the last gas station and was reading the prompts out loud. The windows of the sedan let the muggy midwestern air flow through the car as Bucky drove with laser focus across the entirety of Missouri. 

He pulled off the highway at the first hotel in Kansas they came across and gave Clint a challenging look, to which he only got a raised eyebrow in return.

“We can have an early night.” Bucky said, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. 

“Oh what happened to Mr. Itinerary from this morning?”

Bucky shrugged. “We made good time.”   
  
“Yeah because you drive like a maniac.” Clint laughed. “Get a motel with a pool.”

“Did you bring a bathing suit?”   
  
“No.” Clint shot him a wink that made Bucky glad that they were at a stoplight. 

He just cleared his throat. “Don’t think your Avenger card will get you out of a public indecency charge.”

“No way to tell for sure if we don’t try.” 

Bucky reluctantly pulled into one of the nicer hotels along the freeway that advertised a pool. And a breakfast, if Clint was going to be arrested for skinny dipping, at least Bucky would get breakfast.

“When does the pool close?” Clint asked the unenthusiastic lobby worker.

“11pm.” 

“Thanks.” He responded, wiggling his eyebrows at Bucky so that the worker wouldn’t see him.

“You are  _ not _ going swimming naked” Bucky said sternly as soon as they were through the door of their room. 

Single bed again, might as well save money, at least that’s what he told himself.

“No, I’m not.” Cint said, flopping his long body onto the bed. He grinned at Bucky. “It’s just fun to annoy you.” 

Bucky just felt more annoyed at that and scowled, which only made Clint laugh a bit. 

“C’mon Buck.” Clint jostled him a bit and patted the spot next to him on the bed. “I’ll let you have the TV remote.”

Bucky huffed and sat down aggressively next to Clint on the bed. As promised, Clint passed him the TV remote and Bucky started flipping through all of the channels. He settled on watching Project Runway and Clint just sighed as he turned his hearing aids down. Bucky turned the closed captioning on and the two sat in comfortable silence, tapping at their phones and Bucky’s occasional chuckle gently shaking the coils of the mattress. The night had fallen completely outside of their small window and Clint felt his stomach growl. Bucky looked over at him, startled. He looked at Clint’s stomach and then back up at his face. He opened his mouth to say something but then brought one hand up to his mouth with his fingers together and then rested it over his other hand.  _ Dinner?  _ His eyebrows were raised and Clint was quietly impressed.

“Yeah.” Clint responded, probably too loudly.

Bucky looked out the window and then fingerspelled D-E-N-N-Y-S haltingly. Clint’s face lit up and he rolled off the bed to find his shoes. As much as he felt a funny feeling in his heart when Bucky signed to him, Clint turned his hearing aids back on and winced as the noise of the world came back to him. 

“You never have to ask if I'm up for breakfast for dinner, Buckster.” Clint grinned at him, reveling in the pink that crept on Bucky’s ears at the nickname. “Especially if it comes with the added bonus of telling someone I want a “grand slam”.

Bucky just gave him a withering glance but Clint could see him fighting a smile. He continued to rack up small smiles and even a few giggles from Bucky over their pancakes and hashbrowns and his exaggerated flirting with the waiter, who gave it back as good as he got. Bucky didn’t even grumble at him when he made wild eyebrow wiggles as they passed by the pool on their way back from the restaurant. 

“You can take the first shower tonight Buck.” Clint said as he rolled onto the bed. “I ate too many pancakes.” 

“I told you that you shouldn’t have ordered the all-you-can-eat.”

“I was hungry.”

Bucky just shook his head, hoping that his face wasn’t overly fond. “Drink some water, Barton. It’ll help you digest.”

As soon as Bucky disappeared into the bathroom and Clint heard the shower turn on, he let out a long breath. He felt weird. He felt weird having inside jokes and little domestic disputes with Bucky. He felt weird knowing about Bucky’s cropped hoodie when he slept and that he wore two pairs of socks if the air conditioning was too much. He wondered if Bucky felt weird too. 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/_AMAMOT) or i’m on [tumblr](https://askmeaboutmyoctopustheory.tumblr.com/)


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